Honduras | Catuai from Finca Los Cuzpias in Tepanguare, La Paz Region

Honduras | La Paz Region, Tepanguare | Finca Los Cuzpias Catuai and Lempira Flavor Profiles

Finca Los Cuzpias is a high-altitude farm in the La Paz region of Honduras that produces micro-lots. The owner is Merary Pacheco, farming 5 hectares of Catuai and Lempira, with harvest season running from January to April each year.

Merary Pacheco inherited Finca Los Cuzpias from her parents. The farm sits in Tepanguare, La Paz, at 1,800 meters. On this towering, steep, fertile land she grows excellent Catuai. With the support of her husband and three children, she focuses on quality and keeps learning, aiming ever higher, gradually raising production from just over 20 bags to the current 60. Her best lots often come after April, which unfortunately keeps her out of the Cup of Excellence competition window, but that does nothing to diminish her reputation!

Five years ago, the Honduras Coffee Institute's regional smallholder program was introduced here; recognition for Honduran specialty coffee was still limited at the time. Year after year, with an elite strategy, excellent but very limited coffees were released, annual production of under 100 bags, sometimes just 10, but the quality is outstanding.

Farm owner Merary Pacheco is diligent and quality-obsessed. The farm's various shade trees, along with the aromas of peach and oak trees, create a captivating aromatic landscape. The coffee garden uses natural compost, and the sun-drying room with airflow after washing was built after consulting with experts, serious post-processing hardware.

Cupping Notes

Floral, berry, vanilla, peach, and honey, with persistent honeyed sweetness and a smooth mouthfeel in the aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Brewing Method:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5

Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15 with 15 g of grounds. First pour: 25 g of water, bloom 25 seconds. Second pour: up to 120 g, then stop. Once the level in the coffee bed drops to half, continue pouring slowly up to 225 g total. Extraction time around 2:00.

Analysis: A three-stage brew cleanly separates the front, middle, and back-end flavors. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains fast, pausing the pour extends the effective extraction time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Worka (Guodingding) Cooperative: Yirgacheffe needs no introduction, and FrontStreet's Worka Cooperative delivers the classic washed profile, famous worldwide for white-flower sweetness and bright citrus acidity. The florals come remarkably close to jasmine, with a green-tea finish. Poured over, it shows clear floral-fruity tones, uplifting lemon acidity, and honeyed sweetness. It also excels as cold brew: low-temperature steeping draws out more of the light, small-molecule compounds, making an iced coffee as refreshing as fruit tea.

FrontStreet Natural Huakui: A top representative of specialty coffee, Huakui owes its fame to a creamy strawberry flavor, the fruit of rich sweet aromas formed as fully ripe cherries dry in the sun. The silky entry evokes light orange blossom, followed by the sweet-tart juiciness of tropical fruit like guava and mango, adding another layer of depth.

FrontStreet Strawberry Candy: If single-origin coffee is about unique character, blends are about richness and layering. FrontStreet's Strawberry Candy Gesha blend combines Costa Rica honey processing with Panama washed Geisha, so the brew gathers the best of both: raisin, orange, and ripe blueberry aromas, a rose-like enclosed sweetness, and a whisper of almond on the finish. Exceptionally full-bodied in flavor, it suits pour-over, cold brew, home espresso machines, the Moka pot, the Clever dripper, and more.

FrontStreet Mozart: From Costa Rica, a country famous for honey processing, Mozart uses a distinctive raisin honey process, the peeled cherries are briefly fermented before drying. The finished beans carry dried fruit, mature pineapple, and sweet orange flavors, and as hot water is poured over them they release the charming fragrance of osmanthus. Fragrant yet cleanly sweet, they are perfect for cold brew and iced pour-over.

FrontStreet Boquete Geisha: From the small town of Boquete in Panama, birthplace of legendary estates like Hacienda La Esmeralda and Elida, proof of how privileged the terroir is. FrontStreet's Boquete Geisha shows the classic orange-blossom sweetness: white coffee-flower fragrance on brewing, citrus, melon, and honey sweet-sour on entry, with a whisper of caramel that lingers long after the last sip. Suitable for pour-over, drip bags, cold brew, the Clever dripper, French press, and more.